A525 success a step nearer

This week's Chronicle features the campaign to remove the A525 road through Audlem from the Primary Road Network. Chronicle reporter Jamie Oliver has asked the Department for Transport why the de-priming has been delayed since the start of the year.

A Department spokesman could offer no explanation for the delay but added:

“The department has agreed to the removal of the A525 from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Whitchurch, via Audlem, from the primary road network. The administration of this is now underway and will be completed shortly.”

Losing patience with GovernmentCampaigners in Audlem, the Chronicle report says, have been losing patience with the Government for taking so long to sign off the agreement to de-prime Audlem's narrow main road.

The newspaper says: "A 40-year fight to put the brakes on heavy lorries rumbling throught the village ended in victory in January when the former Cheshire County Council signed off a cross-boundary agreement with Shropshire and Staffordshire authorities.

"It agreed to de-prime the A525 route and remove HGVs – a decision which overjoyed Audlem's community leaders."

The paperwork went to the Department for Transport in February for final approval – but little appears to have happened since.

Parish Councillor Mike Hill says: "We have been in contact with our MP, Stephen O'Brien over this and he is raising it in Parliament. Is this Government just stationary? It just feels like the powers that be couldn't care less because we're a small rural village in the north."

With the assurance from the Department for Transport reported above saying the de-priming has been approved, it looks as if success is very near. We understand that Stephen O'Brien is continuing to urge the final sign-off of the paperwork by the Department.

Only then will the first phase of the battle to discourage long-distance HGVs using the A525 be over. Lunch-time yesterday saw an enormous Irish truck completely stuck in the Square. The driver looked as frustrated as the local drivers trying to wend their way round the massive truck and trailer.

The look on the driver's face indicated that it won't just be local residents that will be delighted when the truckers are guided to more suitable HGV routes to the north and south.

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